Qatar Plans The Worlds First Underground Stadium

Qatar’s capital city of Doha is planning one of the strangest and most inventive new stadiums the world has ever seen.

The soccer venue, called ‘The Wall’, will be both the first completely ‘underground’ stadium and the first open-air, air-conditioned stadium.

If you’ve ever been to Qatar, you’ll known that the arid, desert climate would make sitting outside at a sports venue an absolutely miserable endeavor. That is why the unique underground design of ‘The Wall’ will be implemented to keep spectators and players in a cool climate. It will also save a ton of money on air-conditioning bills.

The design makes the structure resembled an opened laptop popping out from the ground. The stadium is expected to be complete in 2010, although these are just initial plans released by the architect and no actual construction has begun yet. The cost of the stadium is estimated to be $20 million. (More pictures after the jump):

All the lights for the stadium will be embedded within the structure of the building. Meaning no unnecessary overhead floodlights.

One of the biggest drawbacks to the plan is that ‘The Wall’ can only hold approximately 11,000 spectators. Come on! Even though soccer isn’t very popular in the US, we could get still get at least 11,000 people into Giants stadium to watch two crappy MLS teams duke it out in horrible weather any night of the week. Nevertheless, this new stadium is part of Qatar’s plan to host the 2018 World Cup. Fat chance, suckas!